Minister signals two stages for social media restriction

Minister signals two stages for social media restriction

ANKARA
Minister signals two stages for social media restriction

Turkish authorities are currently working on the gradual implementation of age restrictions on social media use, carrying on with the studies in two phases, one for children under the age of 13 and another for ages 13-16, the Family and Social Services Minister has announced.

“As our President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] has declared, we intend to shield our children from the harmful content found on social media,” Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş told the press following a cabinet meeting in the capital city of Ankara.

Göktaş unveiled their objective of imposing strict regulations on social media platforms in this vein. According to the minister, these regulations aim to ensure that minors under the age of 16 are accurately identified during the sign-up process and providing the greatest amount of inspection possible.

Moreover, in order to give families more control over how much time their children spend on these social media platforms, they also intend to put requirements on these platforms to create a variety of parental control tools.

However, they do not intend to entirely ban social media use among the children, Göktaş added.

Combating digital addiction is a key component of their objective, as well as their family action plan. “We are holding talks with representatives from social media platforms, our families, our children and the relevant ministries [on the matter],” Göktaş noted.

A special team from the ministry is also investigating similar works being carried out all around the world, she pointed out.